HSBC and their call centres

The word fury, does not even cover what I felt when I was in Asda last week. The day before I had gone to Nandos and tried to pay for lunch on my card but my PIN was incorrect. I entered it in twice and the pinpad said last try and I thought it would be best if I didn’t enter my PIN again. So when I got to the till at Asda I entered my PIN again and it got blocked. I was furious, how is it the PIN I’ve been using for years hadn’t worked? I didn’t want to put the transaction on any of my credit cards, because hey we are kinda in the middle of a recession and I am not getting into that trap. The cashier reckons she couldn’t bypass the PIN/call the bank or put it through manually (that’s a lie- every merchant can ring for authorisation) so I had to call the bank. Which is an 0845 number- which is not free- apparently you can ask for them to call you back- now that I know that I will be rinsing that. I was on the phone for half an hour to the call centre who are not UK based. They had the audacity to say they would end the call if I kept using profanities. I was mad. Isn’t funny how when you miss a bill they are quick to call you and resolve things but when my PIN gets blocked they want to be long and delay the whole process by not allowing me to sign instead,
Anyways it all got resolved and my PIN is not blocked. But the wickedest thing is I did put my PIN incorrectly, I guess I was just thinking about it too much and it made me put the wrong number in. Oh well. I still might complain about the convo and how it could have been resolved quicker and not on my air time.

X Factor

Every year, a new set of hopefuls battle it out to be crowned the winner of X Factor. The auditions see people that can sang and then there are the ones that leave you wondering ‘are they for real?’
Is it me or is this year even more sob story ridden. Everyone has one, whether it be their wife/mother/father/granddad/great aunt *delete as appropriate* died and this is what they would want, or they came from a poor background/never accomplished anything etc. STOP. IT. Get over it, there are things that happen in everyone’s life. My main wonder was, how is it that Alexandra claimed she shares a single bed with her sister in north London when my girl was rocking outfits that weren’t sold in Primark. What. A. Lie. And then she had a Blackberry to ring her family and tell them she was through. Priorities first, phone or bed? I like her, but low the sob story.

So Sunday night I tuned in to see who was making it to the next stage. There was one girl who I really think should have got through, Suzie. The reason I say this is because she could sing, the guy with the wife that unfortunately died didn’t deserve to get through neither did the Spanish lady. How many times can singing in Spanish impress you? Oh and 26? I need to see some ID love, cos she looks like she is pushing much closer to 30.

I just don’t understand some decisions, I just really don’t……but back to work now.

Unlucky birth dates...

Check out this link, apparently your driving skills are based on your date of birth

http://www.onlyinsurance.com/Car-Insurance-News/12752817-Unlucky-birth-dates-could-affect-your-car-insurance.aspx

I drive fast (hence my 3 points) and was born in June but I am a cautious and havent had any accidents....just that people have hot me so it wasn't my fault.

Gossip Girl

This is going to be a change from my usual type of blog…not that there is one.
But I love Gossip Girl, it rocks. I don’t think any other TV programme has got me this excited…except for Making The Band, ANTM, Prison Break, Real World, One Tree Hill…okay well this is different!
Gossip Girl just goes to show you don’t need to be on the west coast to have a glamorous show. Forget the OC, Gossip Girl is where it’s at.
Imagine walking down the Upper Eastside and being in GG’s radar. Imagine going to a high school where everyone gets a text update on the latest goss. Where the ins and outs of going to an American high school could be so interested.

You know you love me XOXO

Credit crunch

With all this talk of a recession and what not, I have come to the conclusion that it is time to have a firm hold of the purse strings and tighten them. I don’t mean we should all turn Scrooge and let the recession affect our appearance. Never that. But it’s time to limit the caramel macchiatos and mochas that I have become accustomed to and time to use the dreaded work kettle and make my coffee. I mean there has been a jar of Kenco in my drawer for the past month and the amount of times I’ve used it I could count on one hand. It’s funny how I can mange to find myself standing in a queue in Starbucks- leave the office- but can’t go to the kitchen to make a coffee. Which is more cost-effective and probably takes up less time and I could put as much coffee as I want! Making it stronger and I’ll be able to get through the day that little bit more with extra coffee.
The credit crunch also brings me to my next point. Finding a more cost-effective way of getting to work. I thought about walking one stop so I could save £1 if I do it both in the morning and after work (I refuse to buy a monthly pass, its cheaper for me to PAYG). But let’s be realistic after a night out or in, will I really get up out of bed that bit earlier? Nah, thought not. But on the way back from work that is an option, I could even pop in to Tesco or Iceland on the way home. I also thought about getting a moped. My brother reckons his friend spends £10 a week on petrol for his moped. I really could see myself whizzing down the A40 in a baby pink moped. But then I realised I will be paying for two insurance policies. When you compare car insurance to bike insurance premiums, bikes probably work out cheaper. So I would be saving money, but I thought about winter. I can barely sand outside for too long when it’s cold let alone drive in the cold. And what about when it’s raining? My hair?!?!
So as much as in theory a bike would be best for me, I would really need the choice of both car and bike, and the words credit crunch come to mind and forking out for two insurance polices really isn’t the one.

That my friends was my thought for the day okay well maybe just morning. Monday morning and I am thinking about cruising to work in my moped to save time and money. Well back to the grind for me.

Random calls!

A few months back I may have blogged about me having Car Insurance issues. I had serious problems and trust me it wasn’t the one!
Anywho, much to surprise I received a phonecall on Wednesday and due to me being at work I couldn’t answer it. The person left a message- which is a bit odd for an 0800 phone number. I listened to my voicemail and I was told to call back. Lunch time came and went and I really couldn’t be bothered to give them a call back. So today the company called back and I decided this random number really needs to stop ringing off my phone. I called back, and the person kindly informed the person I was after was on another call. I told him, its either now or never, I am sick of this number harassing me. Okay harassing is a very strong word. But you get the gist. So the man on the line told me it was a personal injury company called Claims something or another said my insurance company *coughKwikFitcough* passed on my details. Okay, stop. Right. There. Kwik Fit passed on MY details? How dare they? I feel validated, what else are they passing on. So where was I? Kwik Fit passed on my details stating that I had an accident. Ummm did I? No what had happened was….my car got hit, I wasn’t in it. So what Kwik Fit were thinking that day I don’t know. Either way, I was so annoyed that my details were passed on. There is only one time I used a personal injury company and to this day I stand by them and say that’s the only one I would use. So naff off all you other companies. And as for Kwik Fit don’t pass my details. When I have time I may just give them a call to have a rant. Don’t you just love call centres?

I just don’t get why Kwik Fit would think people can put in accident claims when they weren’t in the car? Ahhh!!

Carnival 2008

Why did I bother? The day was going well up until it came time to go home and the Po-po decided they were gonna barricade us in and treat us like criminals. People were throwing bottles so the Police decided they were going to cordone off the road and not let anyone go anywhere. Because surely this would calm them down right? Not at all. People got even more frustrated and began throwing even more bottles. People were sticking to the pavement and trying to get out of the way and not get hit by bottles. I kindly *in my nicest voice ever* asked an officer if we could just get through to a slip road and hide there because we didn’t want to get hit. His response? No. if he lets a few of us in everyone will want to go to the side road. Isn’t this a better option? Gradually let people go into the side road to avoid getting bottled. I made it obvious I would be claiming compensation if a bottle touched me. The crowd were trying to get through and out of harms way but the Police pushed everyone in the direction of the bottles. It was horrible. People screaming and clinging on to each other. Myself and my friend somehow managed to squeeze though and only made it to another row of Police officers, at this point we had to young girls tagging along with us. Poor things probably their first trip out alone and to be experiencing something that I myself- in my twenties- had never experienced. One of the girls rang her mum to let her know she was okay. Which I thought was sweet, you know how mothers worry.

In the middle of the roads there were still floats and buses. I asked one of the buses if they would let us on. No chivalry is obviously dead because they refused to let us on. Don’t worry about us, we’ll just get hit in the face with a bottle.

In the link below at the beginning there is one boy throwing the majority of the bottles- did he really think he was going to get away with it? The Police- who I thought would have just ran up to him and beat him- decided to use one of the floats as a decoy, they asked it to drive under the bridge in Grove and hid behind it and ran out on the boy. You know he got it at the station, cos the way they carried him off (all 15 of them) he was all crumpled up. We eventually got on to a side road and went the long way round and managed to get back on to the road we were on- this took forever and a day I thought we had walked to the other side of London at this point.

Yet again the Police trying to enforce their authority. Apparently they were picking on people and arrested them for no reason. I don’t mid stop and search- by al means do it especially in a vicinity where I know I am going but there is such thing as harassment. I read in one of those free papers that they were making racist comments too. Hmmmm. The officers were northerners and didn’t really know how to talk to Londoners, rather than show compassion to the ones that weren’t doing anything wrong- such as myself- they were rude, aggressive and hostile. The Police have gone down even further in my book.

Have a look at this: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7581556.stm